The disclosure generally relates to the field of storage systems, and more particularly to network-attached storage.
Network-attached storage (“NAS”) is a storage architecture that implements file-level storage. Data stored in NAS is grouped into one or more files as part of a file system. When interfacing with NAS, a client identifies data by referencing a particular file (or portion of a file). The file-level operation of NAS can be contrasted with the block-level operation of a Storage Area Network (“SAN”). When interfacing with a SAN, a client identifies data by referencing one or more blocks as opposed to the higher-level construct of a file.
An object store is a third type of storage architecture. Instead of a hierarchical structure, as typically used for file-level storage, an object store generally utilizes a flat structure and stores “objects” identified by unique identifiers. An object is grouping of data treated as a unit. When interfacing with an object store, a client identifies data by referencing a particular object identifier.